Foodpanda raises $110 M funding from Rocket Internet AG and others

Global food delivery marketplace Foodpanda has just announced $110 million in fresh funding from Rocket Internet AG, as well as other existing and a few new investors. The Rocket Internet incubated venture has presence in 40 countries.

The company will invest new round in achieving best customer service. For restaurants, the online marketplace helps to increase delivery sales through online and mobile platforms and provides them with constantly evolving technology and analytics.

Globally, Foodpanda partners with over 45,000 restaurants in 40 countries, being a market leader in 32 of those countries.

In a press statement, Ralf Wenzel, Co-Founder and CEO of the Foodpanda group, said,

Over the last couple of months we have become the leading online food delivery marketplace across the most promising and fastest growing emerging markets. The new funding allows us to fully focus on user experience and customer service with the aim of completely disrupting the way people order food by establishing a real alternative to pizza flyers and phone calls.

Floated in 2012, the company had raised more than $200 million so far. After acquiring key competitors this year in India, Mexico, Russia, Brazil, Eastern Europe, Middle East and Asia, the company will now further invest into product and technology, and continue focusing on customer service and loyalty in food delivery or take-away segments.

Earlier this year, Foodpanda acquired JUST EAT to attain market leadership in one of the biggest food delivery markets in the world. Before the acquisition, JUST EAT was owned by a UK-based online food takeaway business that acquired HungryZone in India in 2008.

Currently, Foodpanda ensures food delivery over 12000 plus restaurants across 200 cities in India. To gain strong footholds, Foodpanda made its first acquisition by acquiring food delivery business TastyKhana.in in November last year. During the same time, Delivery Hero acquired Foodpanda’s hellofood businesses in Argentina, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador and Peru.

Rohit Chadda, MD and Co-Founder at Foodpanda, said, “We have seen excellent growth over the past year attracting new users from all corners of the country. This round of funding will allow us to scale up and strengthen the Foodpanda brand across geographies. We are strongly rooted in the belief that ‘customer is king’ and will continue working harder to reinforce our status as the prime choice when it comes to online food ordering.”

A quick look at online food ordering market in India

Online food ordering market is going through an interesting phase in India. Besides Foodpanda, Zomato had begun a pilot for food delivery in a few cities and will be launching it in major metros next week. Mumbai-based food ordering app TinyOwl had raised Rs.100 Crore in its Series B round from Matrix Partners, Sequoia Capital and Nexus Venture Partners. Launched in 2014, TinyOwl has over 4,000 restaurants and processes almost 2,000 orders every day. In less than one year, the company has built a team strength of 400 plus employees.

Zomato’s entry in food ordering space will affect Foodpanda and TinyOwl's business in Mumbai as Gurgaon-based company has over 30 million visits related to restaurant info such as menu, pictures and reviews among others every month. Going forward it would be interesting to see how this space shapes up.